Reporter: After two months sleeping on that upper bunk in the county jail, linda's happy homecoming soon crashed into reality. Days later, the former mayor had to register as a sex offender, a requirement of her plea deal. Any time there's a change of address, you have to report that. Reporter: Also as part of that plea deal, linda could no longer be in her own home when there were children around who were not her own. So, when you had friends over -- I would leave. Reporter: Because you had to? Yes. Reporter: This meant sleeping in the basement of your store? Yes. Reporter: And when you were doing that, did you think, how did I get myself into this position? One bad decision has led to this just collapse of my life. Drastically. Reporter: Unable to attend her own children's events without a court-approved supervisor with her, this was linda's new normal. Watching karlie's swim meets from her car. Take your mark. Go get 'em, karlie! It's not fair. It's a lot of restricting and like, unnecessary things. Reporter: And when she travels with her husband to an out of town swim meet, what they realized is that linda was crossing county lines, a violation of her parole. Even though she was there with her husband, there to see their daughter, someone reported her to police. They came into my work and put me in hand ccuffs and took me to jail. Reporter: What was that like? Horrible. Reporter: What do you say to the parents out there that say she couldn't go near kids after what happened. I think everybody's goal their skeletons and most people are just lky enough to not have theirs be public. Reporter: But linda's skeletons were not exacting a price on her husband. The high school principal. Because he drove her to that swim meet, he was being punished, too. And they told him heed to to leave the job? They put him on administrative leave and did a full-on investigation. Reporter: Because you want to the swim meet? Because I went. Reporter: So, he was paying a price, too? Yes. He was devastated. Reporter: And yet again, linda would be sent back to jail for crossing that county line. Another 12 days behind bars, and she was assigned community service. What did you do? I cleaned a church. Reporter: Were you playing in that church? I do a lot of praying in and out of church. I did a lot of thinking. Reporter: After the praying, all of the thinking, a year would go by before off the restrictions were lifted, after being labeled a sex offender. But just when linda thought she was in the clear and could go back to her children's games, the prosser school district informed her that they changed the rules. Now, just one of two school districts in the entire state of washington barring any convicted sex offender, regardless of the offense, from stepping foot on school property without written permission. Linda says that change was because of her. But tonight, the school telling "20/20" the timing was purely quince dental. All of this taking a toll on this parent, while at home, the ordeal taking a toll on her marriage, too. You and your husband were struggling? Yeah. It's been a long couple years. Reporter: Linda had decided the time had come to move out. A lot of people were stunned by how supportive he was of you. During the whole thing. Yeah. I think he believed in me. Reporter: When the marriage fell apart, what did he say? I think he told me it was -- that decision would be the saddest day of his life. Reporter: So, he still loved you? I believe he did. Reporter: But the marriage was over. And tonight, linda lusk has a new man by her side, a much young er one. You were watching "20/20." Adam canary was watching our first report on the linda lusk case. He says he felt sorry for the entire family. Reaching out at first to her husband, with an e-mail asking if he could talk to linda. She remembers their first call. I just felt like there was a lot of empathy and understanding. Reporter: How old was he? 28? At the time. Reporter: And how old were you? 50? 51, I guess, yeah. Reporter: Was there any part of you though thought, oh, no, this is another young man, much younger than me? You know, his age didn't make a differences to me. Reporter: Already friends, linda says after her marriage dissolved, it soon turned into something more. What would you say to those people who watched your husband be so supportive of you, you were with him 17 years and within a few months, you were already with someone new. People can judge it and say what they want, but as long as we're happy, really, shouldn't that be what matters in the end? Reporter: What was it that made you think, I want to reach out to this woman? It was that look in her eye, I mean, my heart broke for her, everything she had to go through. I felt that our feelings, our emotions, our passions just linked up. We just had an immediate connect connection. I think this person is going to be my friend, he's very supportive, had a lot of empathy for what I had been through, especially with my son. Reporter: Empathy, because adam, too, had lost a child. A connection they say so powerful that adam left his wife and 3-year-old daughter behind in new jersey, moving to washington state to be with linda. Do you struggle with that, as a dad, having left your little girl? I don't struggle with the decision. I struggle with the distance. One way or another, I wasn't going to be there 24/7, after we were separated, prior to this. Reporter: And to people who say you chose linda over being near your little girl? I'm always there for my daughter and she probably won't understand until she's much older, anyway. To me, he was my best friend and he's adam, he wasn't an age. I think there's such a double standard in this society. If I dating somebody 20 years older, nobody would care. And men date younger women all the time and nobody cares. Reporter: But a lot of people looking at this would say it's not just that. It's that you had that incident with a teenage boy who was much younger. He manipulated his way into my home. I wish I would have handled it different. I did not seek out some young boy. Reporter: You don't think she was at all responsible? No. Reporter: He was a teenager. To this day, I think people make their decisions. I think there are moments where you want to go back, but the level of remorse and apology she had to endure didn't justify what actually happened. Reporter: A lot of people sail she was the adult, he was the teenager, she was the mother. I know her heart. I know what her intentions were. And I know what her intentions are now. And all I can do is support her. Reporter: But will linda lusk's children support him? And one last battle. Barred from school grounds, what linda says she's willing to do to see her daughter graduate at the end of this senior year. If I get arrested, I am going to my daughter's please.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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{"id":20255680,"title":"Ex-Mayor Finds New Love after Small Town Sex Scandal","duration":"7:36","description":"Act 5: Linda Lusk hopes the teen she was allegedly involved with can find happiness like hers.","url":"/2020/video/mayor-finds-love-small-town-sex-scandal-20255680","section":"2020","mediaType":"default"}